We are the ghosts of Halloween Past, Present, and Future
October 2, 2023 2:43 PM Subscribe
A Halloween Carol (SLXKCD)
Needs a SpookySeason tag
And maybe oooOOOOooOOOoo
posted by hippybear at 2:50 PM on October 2, 2023 [4 favorites]
And maybe oooOOOOooOOOoo
posted by hippybear at 2:50 PM on October 2, 2023 [4 favorites]
This is a very short post, and that's OK, it just means we need to stone soup the links.
Randall Monroe on how to read as lazily as possible.
XKCD: How much time should you spend making routine tasks more efficient to reduce effort?
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 3:07 PM on October 2, 2023 [6 favorites]
Randall Monroe on how to read as lazily as possible.
XKCD: How much time should you spend making routine tasks more efficient to reduce effort?
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 3:07 PM on October 2, 2023 [6 favorites]
These ghosts have been so helpful.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 3:31 PM on October 2, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 3:31 PM on October 2, 2023 [4 favorites]
Ooooo
posted by potrzebie at 3:37 PM on October 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by potrzebie at 3:37 PM on October 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
BOoo000ooo000ooo
posted by supermedusa at 4:06 PM on October 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by supermedusa at 4:06 PM on October 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
When I was in film school, we used to amuse ourselves when things got too stressy by recreating classic movie scenes as if all the characters were actually Spoooky Ghosts!
Like:
Forget it, Jake! It's Chinatown! oooooo, CHINATOWN, JAKE, OOOOOO!
Or:
Leave the gun. Take the CANOLI! OOOOO! THE CANOLI! TAKE IT! OOOO TAKE IT!
Text doesn't quite capture it. But trust me, it was a great way to be very silly for a while and decompress when needed.
posted by Naberius at 4:10 PM on October 2, 2023 [15 favorites]
Like:
Forget it, Jake! It's Chinatown! oooooo, CHINATOWN, JAKE, OOOOOO!
Or:
Leave the gun. Take the CANOLI! OOOOO! THE CANOLI! TAKE IT! OOOO TAKE IT!
Text doesn't quite capture it. But trust me, it was a great way to be very silly for a while and decompress when needed.
posted by Naberius at 4:10 PM on October 2, 2023 [15 favorites]
This week's Oglaf is more skeleton-y than ghost-y (link SFW (surprising that nobody is boning), rest of the site less so).
posted by jjderooy at 4:26 PM on October 2, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by jjderooy at 4:26 PM on October 2, 2023 [5 favorites]
Use the Force, LuuUUUuuuke!
posted by SPrintF at 6:27 PM on October 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by SPrintF at 6:27 PM on October 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
The Ghost of Subjunctive Past is my favorite ghost ever.
posted by I-Write-Essays at 6:31 PM on October 2, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by I-Write-Essays at 6:31 PM on October 2, 2023 [5 favorites]
Is this one of those super-elaborate XKCDs that don’t work on my iPad, or is it really just those ghosts saying ooo?
posted by Horace Rumpole at 7:07 PM on October 2, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by Horace Rumpole at 7:07 PM on October 2, 2023 [6 favorites]
oooOOOOooOOoo
posted by hippybear at 7:23 PM on October 2, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 7:23 PM on October 2, 2023 [3 favorites]
It's a super-elaborate XKCD in that if you leave the tab open in an empty room and wait long enough, a ghost jumps out of the screen and scares you to death
posted by phooky at 8:07 PM on October 2, 2023
posted by phooky at 8:07 PM on October 2, 2023
The Ghost of Subjunctive Past is my favorite ghost ever.
The Ghost of How You Wish Things Were. Definitely not my favorite ghost, leaves me feeling inadequate about everything. I much prefer the Ghost Of Halloween Present Continuous, who's keeping the spirit of Halloween alive as we speak.
posted by MrVisible at 8:14 PM on October 2, 2023 [6 favorites]
The Ghost of How You Wish Things Were. Definitely not my favorite ghost, leaves me feeling inadequate about everything. I much prefer the Ghost Of Halloween Present Continuous, who's keeping the spirit of Halloween alive as we speak.
posted by MrVisible at 8:14 PM on October 2, 2023 [6 favorites]
The Ghose Of Future Pluperfect would have been haunting me during the time I would have been sleeping.
posted by hippybear at 8:18 PM on October 2, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 8:18 PM on October 2, 2023 [7 favorites]
Careful, if you summon the ghost of future perfect continuous passive this thread will have been being haunted all along. ooOOOOooooOo...
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 8:27 PM on October 2, 2023 [9 favorites]
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 8:27 PM on October 2, 2023 [9 favorites]
The Ghost of Subjunctive Past is my favorite ghost ever.
The English speaking one is OK - but be very careful his diabolic cousin Le fantôme de ce que l'on voudrait que les choses soient
posted by rongorongo at 11:47 PM on October 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
The English speaking one is OK - but be very careful his diabolic cousin Le fantôme de ce que l'on voudrait que les choses soient
posted by rongorongo at 11:47 PM on October 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
“The Ghost of Subjunctive Past is my favorite ghost ever.”
Geoffrey Pullum, co-author of The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language calls this (what we're thinking of; i.e., were) the irrealis mood (form) rather than the "subjunctive past". He can be very salty about it.
It's been part of my idiolect most of my life but it's almost vanished from casual speech. I worry sometimes that it sounds pretentious.
This is a big digression, but I've noticed something recently that's really bugging me: using "floor" where I would use "ground". Like, I've seen people refer to a grass lawn as a "floor". It's too ubiquitous to be recent, but it's totally caught me by surprise. And I loathe it. (Not as much as "phase" for "faze" or "defuse" for "diffuse", which are out-and-out wrong. I'm a descriptivist, not a barbarian.)
I've speculated that this shift is driven by people being outdoors much less than in the past. But I've also thought it may have to do with how ambiguous and inconsistent this usage distinction actually is.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 2:19 AM on October 3, 2023 [6 favorites]
Geoffrey Pullum, co-author of The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language calls this (what we're thinking of; i.e., were) the irrealis mood (form) rather than the "subjunctive past". He can be very salty about it.
It's been part of my idiolect most of my life but it's almost vanished from casual speech. I worry sometimes that it sounds pretentious.
This is a big digression, but I've noticed something recently that's really bugging me: using "floor" where I would use "ground". Like, I've seen people refer to a grass lawn as a "floor". It's too ubiquitous to be recent, but it's totally caught me by surprise. And I loathe it. (Not as much as "phase" for "faze" or "defuse" for "diffuse", which are out-and-out wrong. I'm a descriptivist, not a barbarian.)
I've speculated that this shift is driven by people being outdoors much less than in the past. But I've also thought it may have to do with how ambiguous and inconsistent this usage distinction actually is.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 2:19 AM on October 3, 2023 [6 favorites]
[...] using "floor" where I would use "ground". Like, I've seen people refer to a grass lawn as a "floor".
This seems to be a British-ism--or at least I'd never heard it before I moved to the UK--and it bugs the hell out of me. Floors are indoors.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 2:31 AM on October 3, 2023 [2 favorites]
This seems to be a British-ism--or at least I'd never heard it before I moved to the UK--and it bugs the hell out of me. Floors are indoors.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 2:31 AM on October 3, 2023 [2 favorites]
That's what I thought. I think it started there but is now found in NA.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 2:33 AM on October 3, 2023
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 2:33 AM on October 3, 2023
NAmerican married to a British person here—I started using it for fun because I thought it was a funny bit when my husband and other British people used it and now it’s become a normal part of my speech but I still think of it as fun. It honestly never occurred to me until now that, like, maybe every single British person isn’t being silly on purpose when they call the ground the floor… I think, living here in the UK, I do still hear people calling the ground the ground, so maybe it is a tiny funny bit that everyone’s agreed on?
posted by cabbage raccoon at 3:43 AM on October 3, 2023
posted by cabbage raccoon at 3:43 AM on October 3, 2023
Upon further questioning, Husband agrees it’s a funny bit the entire nation has tacitly converged on! Ground is outside and/or not used for human habitation purposes. Pasture is ground, paved road is ground, patio is floor, dirt floor in a dwelling is floor. Any other use of floor is for fun, except for forest floor, which is just a quirk of English. So Saith The One English Guy.
posted by cabbage raccoon at 3:51 AM on October 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by cabbage raccoon at 3:51 AM on October 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
maybe it is a tiny funny bit that everyone’s agreed on?
I have not agreed to this!
(and yes, it's always annoyed me, but it's been that way since I was a child, so I guess it's a thing?)
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 4:23 AM on October 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
I have not agreed to this!
(and yes, it's always annoyed me, but it's been that way since I was a child, so I guess it's a thing?)
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 4:23 AM on October 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
[...] using "floor" where I would use "ground". Like, I've seen people refer to a grass lawn as a "floor".
“forest’s ferny floor” though? - if I could return to “spooky”.
posted by rongorongo at 6:57 AM on October 3, 2023
“forest’s ferny floor” though? - if I could return to “spooky”.
posted by rongorongo at 6:57 AM on October 3, 2023
“the term ‘Future Perfect’ had been abandoned since it will have been discovered not to be.”
posted by farlukar at 7:39 AM on October 3, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by farlukar at 7:39 AM on October 3, 2023 [2 favorites]
A lot of translations of Chinese webnovels seem to use Hong Kong English as their default, and use "floor" for outdoors situations where I as speaker of a North American dialect would use "ground." It was only after seeing that several times did I start seeing other North Americans start to use it. It was quite jarring.
But not exactly spooky. oooOOOoooOOOooo
posted by Quasirandom at 7:54 AM on October 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
But not exactly spooky. oooOOOoooOOOooo
posted by Quasirandom at 7:54 AM on October 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
Adds ‘floor’ to my lexicon of special purpose weapons designed to needle just the folks who need a good poking.
Why wait for ghosts- I haunt prescriptionists cause everyday is Halloween.
OooOOOooooooo touch floors bro
posted by zenon at 9:36 AM on October 3, 2023
Why wait for ghosts- I haunt prescriptionists cause everyday is Halloween.
OooOOOooooooo touch floors bro
posted by zenon at 9:36 AM on October 3, 2023
Don’t get it
posted by St. Peepsburg at 9:48 AM on October 3, 2023
posted by St. Peepsburg at 9:48 AM on October 3, 2023
I find the use of the word "floor" to indicate the level one is at in a building is also quite divergent. Germany, at least in the Eighties, has a "ground floor" and a "first floor" but they are not the same! The ground floor is the one that has the doors that let you go in and out at ground level, but the first floor is the floor above the ground floor. Compared to the US, that means everything is off by one, because a German first floor is a US second floor.
posted by hippybear at 9:49 AM on October 3, 2023
posted by hippybear at 9:49 AM on October 3, 2023
Compared to the US, that means everything is off by one, because a German first floor is a US second floor.
This might lead to a gunfight in a basement.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 9:54 AM on October 3, 2023
This might lead to a gunfight in a basement.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 9:54 AM on October 3, 2023
In Chile we have "primer piso" for the one with the doors to the outside, and in Argentina it's the one above that.
Argentinians are mistaken about this.
posted by signal at 10:26 AM on October 3, 2023
Argentinians are mistaken about this.
posted by signal at 10:26 AM on October 3, 2023
> I haunt prescriptionists cause everyday is Halloween
(Blood pressure rising.) Well played.
posted by mpark at 10:29 AM on October 3, 2023 [3 favorites]
(Blood pressure rising.) Well played.
posted by mpark at 10:29 AM on October 3, 2023 [3 favorites]
Came in here looking for everyday louie's Ghost Duet, found it, thank you EvaDestruction :)
posted by subdee at 2:58 PM on October 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by subdee at 2:58 PM on October 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
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posted by signal at 2:50 PM on October 2, 2023 [4 favorites]